Known for decades as a feminist, writer, lecturer and political activist, Gloria Steinem didn't waste much time before slamming presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as “a disaster,” part of "a “backlash” regarding women's rights, and someone she hopes will “hang himself” before the November 8 election arrives.
The 82-year-old liberal made those claims during an interview with Kevin Fallon, a senior entertainment reporter at the Daily Beast website.
During the discussion, Fallon stated: “I would be remiss, given that we’re talking on the day that every other GOP candidate has dropped out of the race, if I didn’t ask you how you’re feeling facing the reality that Donald Trump is all but certain to be the GOP nominee."
Steinem responded:
Well, my hope is two things. One: He will lose in a very definitive and humiliating way. Two: That the fact that he became the candidate will call real Republicans to come back and take over the party again.
The Republican Party used to be centrist. It wasn’t extremist. For instance, it supported the Equal Rights Amendment when Democrats didn’t. It was often better on racial equality than the Democratic Party, which was more southern.
“It has a tradition that is very different from this right-wing extremism,” she continued. “Since he has come to power without the Koch brothers and all this other stuff, perhaps it will cause a recognition that real Republicans, centrist Republicans, need to come back and take over the fear.”
“Your sense of fear is less than I anticipated,” Fallon stated.
“Oh no! If he should win, it would be a disaster,” Steinem replied
“We are speaking today about the crisis facing women,” the reporter noted before asking. “Can you foresee a situation where Trump becomes more educated on women’s issues and women’s rights in this country and makes strides away from the disaster he’s been in that realm?”
“Yes,” the liberal activist responded, “because if you look at the public opinion polls, they’re quite positive. Most people do support all the issues of equality, including the right to decide when and whether to have children,” an apparent reference to abortion.
“The public opinion polls are quite good on those issues,” Steinem continued. “He represents a backlash.”
“Look who’s supporting him,” she asserted. “It’s way disproportionately white and male -- I shouldn’t say it’s male because it’s not the fault of all men. It’s masculine. It’s white and masculine.”
“I don’t know about the economic class, but I think mostly lower economic,” she claimed, so “he is a protest candidate in many ways. So it’s dangerous, but it’s a wake-up call, and it could be a moment of transformation.”
Fallon then stated:
A lot of people cringe thinking about what a fight against Trump would be like for Hillary Clinton, given his rhetoric and his attitudes and what we’ve seen of his behavior in campaigning. What will the fight be like for her?
“The temptation is to answer him,” Steinem replied. “I think the answer to ignore him and speak directly to the people, the voters, in a positive way: He hangs himself.”
“You’ve spoken about Trump’s 'Woman Card' comment before,” the reporter stated. “Does the fact that he’s now going to be the nominee make that comment even more astounding?”
"In a way, “ the activist noted before stating:
I thought it was very positive and a good use of humor for Hillary Clinton to create a Woman Card. He should have, I wouldn’t say a Man’s Card because he’s not the responsibility of all men by any means.
But he’s playing the Masculine Card: Hierarchy, defeat, ridicule, testosterone poisoning. I don’t know. It would be kind of funny to make a Masculine Card.
The interview was conducted because the liberal icon is about to launch a new series on the Viceland TV channel unsurprisingly entitled Woman, which she both hosts and serves as an executive producer when the program debuts on Tuesday, May 10.
As NewsBusters previously reported, this isn't the first time Steinem has taken a controversial stance regarding this year's presidential election. In early February, the liberal activist asserted on NBC News that young women are supporting Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential race because “that's where the boys are.”
In the report that followed, correspondent Hoda Kotb noted Steinem “sparked an instant backlash” with her remarks.
Two days later, in the wake of Hillary Clinton's shellacking in the New Hampshire primary by Bernie Sanders, Janell Ross's headline at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog told readers not to "blame Madeleine Albright and Gloria Steinem" for making comments that might have contributed to Clinton's loss.
It's interesting that Steinem considers Republicans who agree with her as "centrists" and those who don't "extremists." Who would she name as people who are more liberal than she is? Or are all far-left Democrats merely "centrists?"
